Italian Island Crowded by North African Refugees Italian Island Crowded by North African Refugees March 04, 2011 7:00 PM Sabina Castelfranco Would-be migrants believed to be from Tunisia are seen on the shores of the Sicilian island of Lampedusa, Italy, after arriving there by boat (File Photo - February 11, 2011) Share Email to a Friend Print The people of Lampedusa, the southern-most island in Italy and the first port of call for migrants fleeing the strife in North Africa, have been preparing themselves for potential mass arrivals. So far authorities have managed to keep the situation under control but there are fears this will not last. The people of Lampedusa fear it’s just a question of time. Soon, they say, their island will again be inundated with migrants fleeing the political turmoil in North Africa. After the collapse of the Tunisian regime in mid-January, more than 6,000 arrived on the tiny southern island, braving the stretch of sea that separates it from the African coastline. Most are young men who hope they will be able to find a job and send money back to their families.

Murad is one of the Tunisians who recently arrived and is staying at the holding center on the island. He said he came from Zarzis to look for work because he says there is unemployment in Zarzis and all over Tunisia. As long as the sea and weather conditions allow for a safe enough crossing, the boats keep coming with the migrants. Simona Moscarelli is the representative of the International Organizations for Migration on the island. She said when the flows stop, the stop is determined either by bad weather conditions or lack of boats but once these obstacles are overcome the flows resume. She says they expect to see more flows from Tunisia and then migrants arriving from Libya. Since the start of this new emergency, the authorities have managed to move the migrants fast enough from the holding center in Lampedusa to others in Sicily and on the Italian mainland. But there is concern that this will no longer be possible if the number of arrivals start to increase dramatically. Italy’s Interior Ministry Roberto Maroni told a parliamentary committee this week there are about 1.5 million illegal immigrants in Libya, some estimate even 2.5 million.

Maroni added that these migrants had arrived in Libya because of poor patrols on the country’s southern border, and are now fleeing the unrest following the uprising against Moammar Gadhafi’s regime. Italy mourns as migrants die trying to reach its shores FacebookEmail Twitter Google+ LinkedIn Pinterest Italy mourns as migrants die trying to reach its shores ROME -- The tragic shipwreck that has left at least 110 dead off the coast of the Italian island of Lampedusa late Thursday is calling renewed attention to the tiny island. Post to Facebook Italy mourns as migrants die trying to reach its shores ROME -- The tragic shipwreck that has left at least 110 dead off the coast of the Italian island of Lampedusa late Thursday is calling renewed attention to the tiny island. Check out this story on USATODAY.com: CancelSend A link has been sent to your friend's email address. Posted! A link has been posted to your Facebook feed. 9 To find out more about Facebook commenting please read the Conversation Guidelines and FAQs Italy mourns as migrants die trying to reach its shores Eric J. Lyman, Special for USA TODAY 4:28 p.m.

EDT October 4, 2013 After hundreds of African migrants are lost at sea, many call for something to be done to stop people from making the dangerous trek to Lampedusa Island. Peope light candles in memory of the victims of Lampedusa on Friday in Rome a day after a boat with migrants sank, killing more than 270. (Photo: Tiziana Fabi, AFP/Getty Images) Story Highlights Lampedusa is about the same size as Key West It has been an outpost for Mediterranean pirates and fishermen A ship with about 500 African refugees caught fire off Lampedusa and capsized ROME — The shipwreck that has left at least 110 African migrants dead off the coast of the Italian island of Lampedusa is drawing renewed attention to the tiny island that has been the European landing spot of choice for thousands of African refugees — many of whom die trying to reach its shores. Lampedusa, which is about the same size as Key West, is closer to the north African coast in Tunisia than to the southern Italian island of Sicily. Over its history, it has been an outpost for Mediterranean pirates and fishermen, and has long been an exotic tourist destination.

Rabbit Beach on the island was named the world's best beach by Trip Advisor earlier this year. But it is now known mostly as a potential landing point for refugees, who continue to seek it out despite the massive risks involved. On Thursday, a ship with about 500 African refugees caught fire off Lampedusa and capsized. At least 110 have been found dead, but more than 200 people are unaccounted for. On Friday, Italian coast guard boats with divers headed out from Lampedusa to search for more bodies, but rough seas made the work difficult. The United Nations Refugee Agency estimates that hundreds die trying to reach Lampedusa each year, and the 30,000 to 50,000 or so who reach land there dwarf the island's permanent population of 6,300, severely taxing the island's ability to handle them all. "This is tragedy of a terrible scale," said Anna Maria Matranga, a 40-year-old Sicilian-born shopkeeper now living in Rome.

"Something has to be done to help the plight of these people and also to prevent beautiful Lampedusa from being destroyed." At times, processing centers are forced to house three or four times their capacity, sparking complaints from advocacy groups. The problems have deepened since the start of the Arab Spring in 2011. Italy declared Friday an official day of mourning in the wake of the tragedy, with flags flying half-staff. And Pope Francis, who went to Lampedusa in his first official trip as pontiff earlier this year, said, "Today is a day of tears. These things go against the spirit of the world." An online petition to nominate the island for the Nobel Peace Prize by the Italian news magazine L'Espresso garnered nearly 25,000 signatures in its first 10 hours Friday. Michele Palermo, a 55-year-old furniture restorer and former member of the Italian navy, said Italy must do something to halt the influx of illegal migrants. "They must either let these people come through normal channels or prevent them from leaving their countries at all.

But allowing them to die at sea like that is an unacceptable tragedy." Maurizio Lupi, Italy's minister of transportation, said Italy and other Mediterranean countries should do more to rescue distressed vessels at sea. But Lupi said countries should also take steps to "stop the traffickers of death who exploit the hopes of the poor," a reference to traffickers who promise to deliver refugees to safety in Europe. Survivors of the fiery shipwreck clung for hours to empty water bottles in the dark, trying desperately to keep themselves from drowning at sea, an Italian fisherman said Friday. Lampedusa resident Vito Fiorino said he was the first to come across dozens of migrants scattered in the Mediterranean Sea while he was on an early-morning fishing expedition. At first he thought their weak cries were that of seagulls. Then he saw what terrible shape they were in, coated with gasoline from the smugglers' boat, barely clothed or wearing rags. Some didn't have the strength to grab the lifesaving ring thrown to them. Once on board, they told him they had been fighting to stay alive for three hours. "It was a scene from a film, something you hope never to see in life," he told the Associated Press.

Italian Island of Lampedusa Sees Increase of North African Refugees Italian Island of Lampedusa Sees Increase of North African Refugees March 06, 2011 7:00 PM Migrants from North Africa arrive in the southern Italian island of Lampedus, March 7, 2011 Share Email to a Friend Print Hundreds of refugees fleeing the political violence in North African arrived on the tiny Italian island of Lampedusa Monday. Coast guard officials say 10 fishing vessels arrived early Monday with close to 850 people on board. Another boat has been sighted in the waters off the island and now that weather conditions have improved more are expected to follow. The new arrivals are given medical assistance, a hot drink and warm clothes. They are then identified and screened to see if they are asylum applicants requesting refugee status or simply economic migrants looking for jobs. Most of the recent arrivals are young men. But there are also young women like Fatma, who arrived this week on one of the boats that made the crossing from Tunisia. She says she arrived from Djerba. She is happy to have made it to Italy because there is no work back home and the situation is complicated.

She says people are being killed. Lampedusa officials say the island may be experiencing the beginning of a massive exodus of people fleeing the violence in North Africa. Bernardino De Rubeis, Lampedusa's mayor, says a commitment is needed from the European Union. He says the EU talks about economic aid, but says it must also open the doors of its territory, because the risk is that Lampedusa and Italy will be overwhelmed. Some EU officials have accused Italy of over-reacting to the crisis. But Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi has warned his ouster could create chaos in the region, with thousands of refugees spilling onto European shores. Thousands of Refugees Fleeing North Africa Thousands of Refugees Fleeing North Africa On 6/12/11 at 10:00 AM Gallery: Exodus from North Africa Alex Majoli / Magnum for Newsweek World In the shadow of ornate mausoleums and marble tombs, rows of wooden crosses are planted in the dirt, bearing no names, only numbers. Three young men were recently buried in an anonymous grave in this cemetery on the Italian island of Lampedusa.

Little was known of them, except how they died—trapped under the hull of a smuggler’s ship that crashed onto the rocky shore. The men carried no passports and no papers, though one had a picture of a young woman in his pocket, and another, a folded letter rendered illegible by seawater. The island priest, Father Stefano Nastasi, photographed the dead men as he has all the nameless who have drowned off the coast during these last few months, storing their portraits at the church rectory in case someone comes in search of a lost relative, he says. “Right now, though, the families probably still think they made it.” No one knows how many people have died trying to make it from North Africa to Europe. Human traffickers don’t keep passenger lists, and authorities can only guess at the numbers of migrants based on the size of the capsized ships. But this much is clear: this is one of the deadliest years on record. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees estimates that in the past two months alone at least 1,600 people have died at sea as they fled their countries for European shores.

Try Newsweek for only $1.25 per week Lampedusa’s coastline is marred by the carcasses of capsized boats; the port is filled with shipwrecks, some with blankets, children’s toys, and jackets still on board. Deaths in these Mediterranean waters are now so common that fishermen routinely snag corpses in their nets. But to avoid the lengthy bureaucracy that goes with reporting the morbid catch, they often throw the bodies back in the water. “I can’t afford to have my boat sequestered for the season,” says one fisherman who didn’t want to give his name. “They won’t get any better burial on land if we bring them in.” Ibra, a 17-year-old from the Ivory Coast, recently set out from Tripoli. Once at sea, the ship’s engine went out and the refugees drifted for days before a fisherman summoned the Italian coast guard. By then, however, several people had already died, including a pregnant woman. “There’s no reason to keep a dead body on board under the hot sun,” says Ibra. “We emptied their pockets and buried them at sea.” The massive wave of migration—and the attendant deaths—are hardly surprising.

Libya is a key transit country for African migrants trying to go to Europe, and until recently, European leaders supported Col. Muammar Gaddafi with economic agreements because Gaddafi—as he repeatedly reminded everyone—controlled the spigot on the flow of African migration. During a state visit to Rome last year, Gaddafi’s threats were hardly subtle. “We don’t know what will happen—what will be the reaction of the white and Christian Europeans faced with this influx of starving and ignorant Africans?” Gaddafi said as he stood next to Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. “We don’t know if Europe will remain an advanced and united continent or if it will be destroyed as happened with the barbarian invasions.” Gallery: Europe's Illegal Immigrants, Refugees, Asylum Seekers Jim Goldberg / Magnum Photos When NATO bombardments against Libya began, Gaddafi vowed to “unleash an unprecedented wave of illegal immigration” on Europe. And the ships have been arriving from Libya since. In the first five months of 2011, more than 45,000 people made their way to Lampedusa—more than 10 times the total number of last year.

Thousands of others have arrived on nearby Pelagian islands, as well as Sicily and Sardinia. One boatload of Tunisians made it all the way to the Italian mainland, docking about 50 kilometers south of Rome. If the war in Libya continues, hundreds of thousands more are expected to make the perilous journey in the coming months. Some refugees come for economic opportunity, having made it to Libya from other poor North African countries or sub-Saharan Africa. Others are fleeing war and unrest in Libya and beyond. But perhaps most disturbingly, human-rights groups report that soldiers loyal to Gaddafi are rounding up people and forcing them onto boats at gunpoint. According to UNHCR and Save the Children representatives who have interviewed scores of survivors, the soldiers give navigational instructions to random passengers before towing the ship to open waters—presumably the idea is to create a humanitarian catastrophe, thereby putting more pressure on Gaddafi’s erstwhile European friends. The journey takes about four days, and conditions on the ships are often horrific. There is little food and there are no toilets on board, and pregnant women are forced to insert catheters before boarding so their urine won’t “poison” the superstitious men.

One pregnant woman, Madeline Adebisi, recently made the journey—involuntarily, she says. When the bombing of Libya began, Adebisi’s husband left Tripoli in search of work after losing his job, and the 32-year-old Nigerian woman was left living with a group of other African women who, like her, had lost their jobs in a hospital with the advent of the war. Soldiers loyal to Gaddafi came to where the women were living and forced them to relocate to a small house near the port. After a few days, they were pushed onto a boat with hundreds of others in the middle of the night, and set to sea. Three days later, having already tried to dock on the island of Malta, the ship lost its rudder off Lampedusa’s shore. Unable to steer, the captain abandoned the wheel, and the ship smashed onto the rocks a hundred meters from the Door to Europe statue, erected to memorialize migrants who have died at sea trying to get to the continent. “We heard the screams coming from the rocks,” Lt. Marco Persi of Italy’s military police tells NEWSWEEK. “They just kept screaming and screaming, calling desperately for help.

I was so worried we would lose some of those babies.” The coast guard’s spotlights illuminated a terrifying scene of children and pregnant women fighting for survival in the churning sea. Rescuers plucked hundreds from the water. “I thought I was dead that night when the boat crashed. I saw this bright light, and I was sure my life was over,” says Adebisi, who is now living in a refugee center in La Spezia on the Ligurian coast. She is about to give birth, but has no idea if her husband is dead or alive—she has not heard from him since April, when he left Tripoli. Migration by way of Lampedusa is not a new phenomenon. But the number of people this year who have made their way to Europe via the island is unusual. The uprising in Tunisia that began in December fueled the first wave. A second wave began arriving in late February, when migrant workers from sub-Saharan Africa, who had been working in Egypt, fled the unrest there.

NATO’s bombardment of Libya, which began in March, propelled the third wave, with tens of thousands of people—Libyans and migrant workers in the country—fleeing across the border to Tunisia or across the sea to Lampedusa. Under the Geneva Convention, political refugees become wards of the country where they land. But economic migrants can be deported back to their nation of origin. And in March, Italy and Tunisia reached an accord in which Tunisian authorities promised to stem the flow of economic migrants; more than half the Tunisian arrivals were deported back to Tunisia; the rest were given six-month visas, allowing them to travel within Italy and, in theory, through Europe’s Schengen (open border) countries. The move prompted France—the target destination for most French-speaking Tunisians—to start patrolling its border with Italy, opening a fierce European debate about the viability of Europe’s open-border Schengen Agreement. The EU’s home-affairs commissioner, Cecilia Malmström, ruled that European countries could reinstate internal border controls under “very exceptional circumstances, such as where a part of the [EU] external border comes under heavy unexpected pressure.” The ruling provoked an angry Italian reaction.

Roberto Maroni, the interior minister, threatened theatrically that Italy would pull out of the European Union, quipping, “It’s better to be alone than have friends like these.” Effectively, he said, the ruling would ensure that Italy alone would be left to deal with the refugee crisis. “Europe is not doing what it said it would do,” Maroni complained at an EU summit. “There is a war in Libya, and as long as it goes on, refugees will keep on coming. This is a problem that we cannot manage alone.” At one point this spring, migrants and refugees topped 10,000 people in Lampedusa, filling every habitable—and inhabitable—space on the island. About 3,000 people were crammed into a detention center built to hold just 800, and refugees were sleeping in doorways and on plastic sheets under trucks during spring’s torrential rainstorms. The refugee agencies ran out of food, and the island’s water supplies were severely tested.

Berlusconi visited Lampedusa in March promising to nominate the island for a Nobel Peace Prize, and vowing to “become a Lampedusan.” Today, very few boat people stay on Lampedusa, where the detention center is reserved for women and unaccompanied minors. Instead, within 24 hours, those who arrive are packed off by ferry to the mainland, where they are sent to refugee centers around the country. Some centers are tent camps, others military bases. But most all of them are bleak and overcrowded. Here, behind barbed-wire fences, people await judgment for political asylum, temporary visa, or deportation. Like Faker Gazzel, many of those who make it from Lampedusa to mainland Europe head for the border town of Ventimiglia, trying to cross into France. Gazzel, a 23-year-old whose brother was killed during the uprising in Tunisia, landed on Lampedusa in February; it took him almost two months to travel the more than 1,000 kilometers north to Ventimiglia. Since April, though, he has been stuck there, even though he holds a temporary visa allowing him to travel to France.

Each night Gazzel and his friend board one of the late-night trains headed for Nice; each night they are kicked off the train by French officers who carry billy clubs and wear surgical gloves as they search for Africans aboard the train. “Tunisia is ruined for me,” Gazzel tells NEWSWEEK. “Life will be much better in France—if I can get there.” He has little money left and spends his afternoons listening to Arabic music on a small radio, drinking red wine out of a cardboard box under a tree on the river bank. For those suspended in this borderland, the past and the future, sharing stories of maltreatment at the hands of the French police is a way to pass the time. Ammar Rabaari, 26, takes his front tooth out of his pocket and holds it in the palm of his hand. “The French police knocked it out,” he says, showing a toothless grin. His legs are cut and bruised, and his hands are scarred and swollen. Rabaari, a Tunisian, made it to Paris by train in March, living with his brother for almost two months before police caught up with him.

One night in early May, French officers arrested him and a group of his friends on a Parisian street. According to Rabaari, the police beat them up before putting them on a train back to Ventimiglia. He is undaunted, though, and will try for Paris again. His traveling companion is a former hotelier from Tunisia named Tahre Tabi who lost his job when the revolution halted tourism in that country. “I have taken my family’s savings to start a new life and bring them over. I cannot fail,” the 33-year-old Tabi says. “I never thought about coming to Europe before the revolution, but now I don’t have a choice but to stay and try to make this work.” European Refugee Crisis Worsens in Mediterranean - SPIEGEL ONLINE European Refugee Crisis Worsens in Mediterranean Europe's African Refugee Crisis Is the Boat Really Full? Since Italy began rescuing Africans from the Mediterranean after the last major tragedy in October, the number of refugees coming to Europe has risen dramatically. Fears of economic immigrants could become a top issue in Europe's spring election. Feedback Nasir Abubakar says the weather was good. "There was no blazing heat from above and no waves below," he says.

But that didn't prevent the 30-year-old Nigerian from almost dying during his journey across the Mediterranean Sea. He says that thousands of people were crammed into a boat without food or water. For five or six days they drifted aimlessly on the open sea. Abubakar says he is no longer certain of other details. He witnessed children, women and men on the boat dying of thirst next to him. "Some asked me to pray for them and then jumped overboard to die," he recalls. Barely clinging to consciousness, he lay down until an Italian Coast Guard helicopter pointed the disoriented captain on the path to Lampedusa. Abubakar can still remember the helicopter's light shining down from as dusk turned to night. He had reached Europe, his destination. "But nobody counted the people who drown and sink to the bottom of the sea," Abubakar says. Abubakar arrived on the Italian island of Lampedusa in the fall of 2011. In the spring of 2014, the Italian government hoped that the kind of things that happened to Abubakar and the people on his boat wouldn't be repeated.

The Italians changed their practices following the drowning deaths of 387 people last October near Lampedusa. With the Mare Nostrum -- Our Sea -- rescue program, the Italians are now intercepting refugee boats in the Strait of Sicily and transferring the passengers onto Italian ships. A Dramatic Increase in Refugees The consequences of the shift have been dramatic, with the number of refugees arriving in Italy rapidly rising. The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) estimates around 18,000 have completed the journey since the beginning of the year. At one point last week, amid favorable weather conditions, 4,000 refugees arrived within a period of just 48 hours. By contrast, during the first quarter of 2013, only around a thousand refugees made it to Italy using the primary route across the Mediterranean. The numbers lay bare an equation that has thrown the European Union into a moral dilemma. In places where refugees are given more humane treatment, their numbers are growing. So is it better to adopt policies of deterrence or to accommodate the newcomers? The issue of refugees is bringing Europe into direct conflict with its own self-image.

A Continent dedicated to the principle of human rights and is fond of pointing out its own Christian roots to other cultures is still lagging behind its own aspirations. Meanwhile, the scope of Europe's unresolved refugee problem has taken on a new dynamic with the explosive growth of refugees coming to Italy. The government in Rome has already rung the alarm bells, with Interior Minister Angelino Alfano warning that 300,000, or perhaps even 600,000, people in Libya alone were ready to board smuggling boats bound for Europe. "We can't take them all," he said. 'This Is Not an Italian Problem' Italy has long been calling for changes to be made to the EU's 2003 Dublin regulation, which stipulates that asylum applications can only be processed in the country where refugees first set foot on EU soil. "This is not an Italian problem," Foreign Minister Federica Mogherini said. "Refugees are in the EU as soon as they arrive in Italy." In light of the fact that the Dublin regulation has essentially failed, politicians in Germany are viewing the rising numbers of refugees with increased concern.

A spokesman for the German Interior Ministry warns that officials in Berlin assume that "a number of boat refugees will continue their journeys to Germany to apply for asylum here." The numbers seem to support that claim. During the first quarter of 2014, the number of asylum seekers in Germany rose by 76 percent against the same time period last year. Increased attention is being paid to the issue in German states as well, which, together with local communities, are responsible for providing accommodations for refugees. In Lower Saxony, Interior Minister Boris Pistorius, of the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD), has asked his staff to provide him with regular updates on the situation in the Mediterranean. "We're going to have difficulties providing accommodations," he warns. Still, Berlin officials haven't exactly been sympathetic to calls for help from Italy. Officials in the Interior Ministry don't see any reason for special program to take in additional refugees in response to the situation in Italy. The spokesman notes that Germany itself is currently taking in far more asylum seekers than Italy. Last year, Germany registered 127,000 new asylum seekers, compared to only 27,000 in Italy.

Martin Schulz, the Social Democrats' leading candidate for elections to the European Parliament, has a different take. He argues that the affected countries have been left in the lurch by the EU for some time now. "In areas facing particular hardship as a result of immigration, the distribution of refugees amongst the entire EU needs to be organized more equitably," he argues. "Financial assistance should also be supplied to those who are doing more than others." The leading candidate for the conservative Christian Democrats, Jean-Claude Juncker, is also calling for "greater solidarity in receiving refugees." He says that reaching agreement on implementing a quota system -- a controversial method that would require EU countries not bordering on the Mediterranean to take in a set number of additional refugees to help alleviate the burden -- should be added to the agenda of the next EU summit. One of Europe's Most Divisive Issues The unresolved refugee problem has returned to the fore in Europe just as it prepares for May's European Parliament elections. Once again, the EU is showing itself to be a union of national interests -- and refugees have long been among the most contentious issues in the 28-member bloc. And Germany hasn't distinguished itself either.

After the drama off Lampedusa last fall, then-Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich of the conservative Christian Social Union, the Bavarian sister party to Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU), hastily ensured Germans that the EU's asylum policies wouldn't be changed in any way. Remarks like that set the tone in Europe and EU leaders subsequently delayed taking any steps toward fundamental reform. When Schulz, currently president of the European Parliament, called on other member states to be more generous than Italy in taking in refugees, he faced a barrage of criticism back home in Germany. In times of widespread euro-skepticism and double-digit unemployment among young adults in euro crisis countries, the line went, proposals like that don't fly with the public. They merely put wind in the sails of radical opponents of Europe. And that goes to the heart of the dilemma currently facing Europe's mainstream political parties. They have every reason to fear that a broad debate over the EU's failed refugee policies could become a draw for right-wing populists.

Addressing the problem, Juncker said recently: "We have to fight to prevent gains by the right-wing radicals in the European election." 'Being on Some Overloaded Boat Is Not an Admission Ticket' In Germany, Bernd Lucke, spokesman for the nascent euro-critical party Alternative for Germany (AFD), is calling for refugees who enter the country illegally be taken immediately to a "safe African country." "We have to make it clear that being on some overloaded boat is not an admission ticket to the EU. Otherwise, more and more people will undertake this risky trip," he says. Andreas Scheuer, general secretary of the CSU, leaves no doubt that his party plans to position itself clearly within the anti-immigration camp during the election. "Asylum policies and the issue of poverty migration will play an important role in the campaign for the European Parliament, he says.

"We have learned from experience that it is asylum in Germany that is sought by those who land in Italy." Noting that the number of people applying for asylum in Germany is already higher than it has been in years, he adds: "We cannot carry the weight of the entire world's pain." With lines like, "those who deceive are out," tough talk on refugees and related policies has become part of the CSU's standard repertoire. Whereas Chancellor Merkel's CDU is taking a more distanced approach to the challenge presented by the anti-euro AfD, its Bavarian counterpart is engaging in direct confrontation -- its callous reaction to the sufferings of refugees in Italy reflects that. Things could have turned out differently. The tragedy in Lampedusa could easily have served to trigger a deep and critical look at European refugee policy. Instead EU leaders limited any new measures to those focused on preventing such jarring catastrophes from happening again. Eurosur is the abbreviation given to the European Border Surveillance System, a sophisticated monitoring system consisting of satellites, drones and radar systems. The program, developed at a cost of around 340 million ($470 million), has been in operation in several EU member states since December.

But it is extremely controversial because it has many applications: It can be used to save refugees, intercept them or even keep them out. But Eurosur is not a solution for the refugee issue. Indeed, the situation continues to escalate, with the number of illegal border crossings into the EU now even larger than it was at the peak of the Arab Spring in 2011. Seventy percent of the refugees coming across the Mediterranean originate in Libya, which has become a failed state following the toppling of dictator Moammar Gadhafi. Italian Foreign Minister Mogherini has noted that the situation in Libya makes addressing the refugee problem all the more difficult given that talks with the government there are a virtual impossibility. Is the Boat Full? The number of asylum seekers in Germany has likewise risen continuously in recent years. Indeed, astonishingly few apply for asylum at the EU's external borders in Italy, Spain or Poland. Relative to its number of inhabitants, Italy is only in 15th place; Germany is in seventh. Relative to their populations, smaller member states like Malta or Sweden take in three times as many refugees as Germany does and the total percentage of all refugees in Germany remains at a figure far below 1 percent of the entire population.

So is the boat full, as the old populist rhetoric goes? It's a controversial issue, especially if you ask the German people directly. A survey conducted by pollster Forsa in March found that only one in three Germans wants Germany to take in more refugees. Hamburg Mayor Olaf Scholz of the SPD, who is closely involved in the issue of migration in a city with a high population of immigrants, nevertheless pleads for a more liberal visa policy. He says that preparedness to take in refugees and tolerance is still substantial but asks, "What happens if the people say: That's enough?" German Development Minister Gerd Müller of the CSU suggests one cannot forget the old idea of addressing the refugee problem at its source: Africa. He recently ordered his staff at the ministry to come up with a special program for refugees. But the main driving force behind his dedication to the issue is that of preventing a further exodus to Europe. A 100-day progress report from the ministry makes clear its desire to "vanquish the causes of flight." When it comes to Africa, though, things have been heading in the opposite direction. While Germany slightly increased its development expenditures last year, funds for Africa have decreased at a rapid pace.

According to calculations by the non-government organization ONE, which focuses on reducing poverty around the world, Germany cut its development spending in Africa by half a billion euros in 2013. The organization claims that no other donor country has scaled back its participation to the degree Germany has. At best, the 100 million that Berlin has since been pledged to Africa can be viewed as a damage control effort. BY NICOLA ABÉ, CHRISTIANE HOFFMANN, HORAND KNAUP, KAROLINA KUHLA, WALTER MAYR, PETER MÜLLER, GORDON REPINSKI AND GREGOR PETER SCHMITZ Translated from the German by Daryl Lindsey Article... Why migrants are dying to reach Italy - CNN.com MUST WATCH African migrants' perilous route 01:21 In November of 2013, the Italian Navy launched a €9M-a-month search-and-rescue program called Mare Nostrum, in which Italian naval ships patrolled the seas to rescue migrants. In just one year, the program rescued more than 160,000 migrants , according to the Italian Navy.

Due to budget constraints and criticism from the European Union that the program itself was encouraging migrants to head across the Mediterranean, the mission ended in October 2014. By the end of the year, more than 174,000 people had been rescued in Italy; an estimated 3,072 people died making the journey , according to the IOM . The bodies of migrants washed up on the shores of Lampedusa are buried in the local cemetery In November last year, the European Union's border control, Frontex , started its own mission -- Triton -- with a budget of less than a third that of Mare Nostrum. Frontex has no vessels or surveillance equipment of its own, so has to rely on European member states to lend them ships; a ship from Iceland, at the far north of the continent, is currently involved in Frontex's operations off southern Europe . When Italy ended Mare Nostrum, the U.N.

High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres warned that some European governments were making "keeping foreigners out a higher priority than upholding asylum standards." "This is a mistake, and precisely the wrong reaction for an era in which record numbers of people are fleeing wars," Guterres told a UNHCR policy meeting . "Security and immigration management are concerns for any country, but policies must be designed in a way that human lives do not end up becoming collateral damage." JUST WATCHED MUST WATCH Lampedusa: Refugees' gateway to Europe 02:23 Once migrants arrive in Italy, they are supposed to be processed for political asylum and monitored until it is granted or denied, but Italy has been sanctioned by the European Union for not fingerprinting new arrivals. By law, Italy has to take care of the arrivals, but many have no intention of staying in the country, and few of the reception centers are gated, meaning migrants can come and go as they please. And with no physical border controls between Italy and other European countries, they can then disperse across the continent. Moutassem Yazbek, 27, an IT specialist who worked for six years in Dubai, arrived in Sicily in December on board a smuggler's boat.

He told CNN he was never fingerprinted in Italy, and eventually made it to Germany where he is studying to learn the language and find work. He says the human trafficking network is a finely-oiled machine that fills a growing need. "I would have done anything to get here," Yazbek said. "It was worth the risk, the bad treatment and the fear. Hard as that may be to believe, it is a better life." The Limits of European Solidarity: African Refugees Stuck in Limbo on the French-Italian Border - SPIEGEL ONLINE The Limits of European Solidarity: African Refugees Stuck in Limbo on the French-Italian Border The Limits of European Solidarity African Refugees Stuck in Limbo on the French-Italian Border The coastal Italian town of Ventimiglia has long attracted vacationers to its gorgeous beaches and charming streets. But now that France has tightened its controls, the border town is quickly swelling with hundreds of North African refugees trying to make their way into France. By Katharina Graça Peters in Ventimiglia, Italy Katharina Graça Peters Geboren 1982, aufgewachsen in Lissabon und Hamburg.

Studium der Kulturwissenschaften und Geschichte in Lüneburg und Barcelona. Praktika und Studienaufenthalte unter anderem in Sydney, Paris und Berlin. Ausbildung an der Deutschen Journalistenschule in München mit Stationen bei "Geo Special", RBB Fernsehen und ARD Aktuell. Seit Oktober 2009 Redakteurin bei SPIEGEL ONLINE im Ressort Politik. Feedback Europe is no longer the "great dream" for Ali Kara. Kara is sitting outside an unadorned railway station in Ventimiglia, an Italian town on the border with France. He wants to cross the border and get to Nice, where his father lives. "I'm looking for freedom," he says. "I'm looking for work. That's all." Kara has already been to France once, five years ago, but he was deported. He has spent the last few nights sleeping on the floor of the train station in Ventimiglia between the plastic chairs and alongside other Tunisians. In the gloomy hall, someone has put up a large picture showing the green mountains of the Riviera beneath a blue sky. Outside, the sun is warm.

The sea and the sand-colored houses with the curved balcony railings are drawing the first vacationers of the season. Europe can indeed be very beautiful -- but also merciless to those who are unwelcome. The Italian police estimate that 50 Tunisians reach Ventimiglia each day. They have made their way here after landing by boat in Lampedusa or Sicily. Most of them wear jeans, sneakers and dark jackets and are carrying little else. Five weeks back, Kara boarded a boat packed with people in the Tunisian port city of Sfax, intending to leave his country, his life -- and, most of all, unemployment -- behind him. First came the refugee holding camp on the island of Lampedusa, then another in Crotone in southern Italy. Then -- like so many others -- he took off heading for Ventimiglia. Here, he is just a few kilometers from his goal. But, for now, his journey has come to an end. The Limits of European Unity The Italian government had promised to give the refugees temporary residence permits that they could use to legally travel to other EU member states. But now France, Germany and other countries have said they will not recognize the papers.

Here, in the border town of Ventimiglia, the pan-European spirit behind the EU has reached its limits. Rome is now using the migrants as a tool to put pressure on neighboring states, and Italian Interior Minister Roberto Maroni has even called European Union solidarity into question. Other EU governments are intensifying not only the war of words but also their border controls. There is suddenly little trace of a united Europe. The sense of disappointment is palpable among the migrants stuck in Ventimiglia. The deputy head of the Italian border police in the town crosses his arms and says that the matter should be solved by "the governments rather than the Italian or French police." Stefano Zerbone, who oversees a temporary refugee center set up here by the Red Cross, says the European Union "is always there when it comes to the euro, to business. But this is a European problem, not just an Italian one." Some of the Tunisians here say that "Europe is beautiful." But they're outnumbered by the many others who say it was a "mistake." France has been particularly vigilant about keeping the refugees out. Most of the Tunisians with the Italian permits want to make their way to friends or relatives living in Nice, Paris or Marseille.

Late Tuesday, Francis Lamy, the prefect of the Alpes-Maritimes department in the far southeast corner of France, announced that French officials have reinforced their borders to the point that 400-500 officers are now patrolling the area on a daily basis "to prevent a wave of illegal immigration." He also showed up in person to pose for photographers at the Saint-Ludovic border station. Since mid--February, 2,800 Tunisians have been detained at the station, and 1,700 of them have been sent back into Italy. The Dangerous Paths to a New Life The border station doesn't house any officials. In fact, it is full of piles of building material and looks downright abandoned. The Schengen Agreement forbids systematic border controls among its 25 member states -- and the French are still complying with it. But they have increased random spot checks on the highways, and officers stationed at toll booths on certain stretches are looking into cars to check for suspected would-be immigrants. If they see people with dark skin, they pull them out of line. Controls on trains have also been increased. Even with these checks, many immigrants are still trying to get in.

Like Kara did four days ago, they hop on trains headed to France. When he arrived there, the police escorted him back to Italy. Some choose to take the more treacherous route over the mountains, whose steep cliffs have earned it the name "the path of death." Others hide in cars driven by smugglers charging 100 ($144) for carriage to Nice. Italian officials arrested 12 of them on Tuesday. Still others simply walk into France along the coastal highways. Soroush and his 15-year-old brother are two of the latter. They are pausing for rest among the pine trees bordering the road. Fearing the police, they keep a close eye on the cars driving by. Soroush is from Afghanistan, where he learned English translating for the Americans. He says that after he was threatened by Islamists, his family scraped together its money and left. Whether by bus or taxi, on foot or horseback, they made it through Iran, Turkey, Greece and Italy all the way here.

But, he adds, they will keep traveling until they arrive "somewhere where our life is safe." Resting his head on his brother's shoulder, Soroush says: "We are tired, angry and thirsty." A Swelling Wave of Men and Worries Soroush says that they have to go now, that they're in a hurry. Another 1,500 meters (0.9 miles) down the road -- through two tunnels and past a restaurant -- lies the French border. And past it lies the town of Menton, where the streets are lined with orange and palm trees, where the locals go jogging along the promenade, where families take walks with their children. Many more immigrants are likely to come, particularly from North Africa. New boats full of immigrants arrive in Lampedusa almost every day. On Wednesday, two would-be immigrants drowned after their ship ran aground off the island of Pantelleria. Just last week, an entire boat full of refugees capsized. Most of the Tunisians say that they know what to expect. They know that the road to France will be dangerous and exhausting. Since the Italian residency permits give them some degree of hope, they are waiting things out in Ventimiglia.

There are now already 300 of them waiting here for the controversial papers that often take two weeks to process, and every day brings more. Indeed, the Red Cross fears that the number of migrants in Ventimiglia could significantly increase. "We are very worried," says Tommaso Della Longa, a spokesman for the organization. Temporary lodging has already been found in an old fire station four kilometers outside the city. There, 150 migrants eat in the evening and sleep at night. The food is said to be very good. This evening, the menu includes cordon bleu and minestrone. Kara is already standing in line outside the building. The doors will open in half an hour. "We have to wait again. That's all," he says. "C'est la vie." Article... Italy boat sinking: Hundreds feared dead off Lampedusa - BBC News BBC News Italy boat sinking: Hundreds feared dead off Lampedusa 3 October 2013 Close share panel Media captionThe BBC's Gavin Hewitt: "The survivors tell a tragic story" At least 130 African migrants have died and many more are missing after a boat carrying them to Europe sank off the southern Italian island of Lampedusa.

A total of 103 bodies have been recovered and more have been found inside the wreck, coast guards say. Passengers reportedly threw themselves into the sea when a fire broke out on board. More than 150 of the migrants have been rescued. Most of those on board were from Eritrea and Somalia, said the UN. The boat was believed to have been carrying up to 500 people at the time and some 200 of them are unaccounted for. Analysis By Alan Johnston BBC News, Rome This marked a tragic end to a long journey from countries as far as Eritrea and Somalia. Over the years there have been numerous disasters involving migrants off Lampedusa, but seldom on anything like this scale. The island's mayor wept as she took in the scene on the harbour wall. Furious demands are being made for an end to the dangerous trafficking of people across the Mediterranean. But it is hard to see how the flow could be curbed, with so many people so desperate for a chance to make a new life in Europe, and traffickers in so many ports ready to take their money.

Italian Interior Minister Angelino Alfano said the ship had come from Misrata in Libya and began taking on water when its motor stopped working. It is thought that some of those on board set fire to a piece of material to try to attract the attention of passing ships, only to have the fire spread to the rest of the boat. Simona Moscarelli, a spokeswoman from the International Organization for Migration in Rome, told the BBC that in order to escape the fire, "the migrants moved, all of them, to one side of the boat which capsized". She estimated that only six of about 100 women on board survived, adding that most of the migrants were unable to swim. "Only the strongest survived," she said. It is one of the worst such disasters to occur off the Italian coast in recent years; Prime Minister Enrico Letta tweeted that it was "an immense tragedy". The government has declared a day of national mourning on Friday. "There is no miraculous solution to the migrant exodus issue," said Italian Foreign Minister Emma Bonino.

"If there were we would have found it and put it into action." Without the necessary paperwork, the only way for migrants to get to Europe is to put themselves in the hands of criminal gangs In a separate incident on Thursday, local media reported that around 200 migrants were escorted to the port of Syracuse on the island of Sicily, when their vessel encountered difficulties five miles off the coast. Earlier this week, 13 migrants drowned while trying to reach Sicily. 'Continuous horror' Footage from Lampedusa showed bodies being laid out on the dockside. The mayor, Giusi Nicolini, described the scene as a "continuous horror". "It's horrific, like a cemetery, they are still bringing them out," she said, according to Reuters.

Image caption More than 140 people have been rescued from the shipwreck, officials say Image caption The vessel reportedly capsized after a fire on board Image caption There are believed to have been around 500 people on board the vessel Image caption The bodies of the victims were lined up at Lampedusa dockside The boat went down a few hundred metres from the shore of the island and divers said they found 40 bodies in and around the sunken boat on the sea bed. Mr Alfano said at least three children and two pregnant women were among the dead. Local media reported that a suspected people smuggler had been arrested.

Mediterranean migrant disasters 2 June 2011: More than 200 mainly sub-Saharan migrants presumed dead when their Lampedusa-bound ship sinks off Tunisian coast 6 April 2011: At least 150 Eritrean and Somali refugees fleeing Libya drown near Lampedusa March-April 2011: Boat bound for Lampedusa gets into trouble after leaving Tripoli and drifts for 16 days in open waters; 61 of 72 migrants on board die 14 June 2003: 50 bodies recovered after boat carrying 70 illegal North African migrants sinks 60km (37 miles) from Lampedusa 25-26 December 1996: 283 South Asian illegal migrants feared drowned when boat sinks off Portopalo, Sicily One Eritrean woman who had been placed among the bodies recovered from the sea was later found to be breathing, Italian media said. She was taken to hospital in Sicily. Pope Francis sent a Twitter message calling for prayers for the "victims of the tragic shipwreck off Lampedusa".

In July he visited the island and condemned the "global indifference" to the plight of migrants trying to arrive there. In a later audience at the Vatican, he said: "The word is disgrace: This is disgrace!" In a statement UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres commended the swift action taken by the Italian coast guard to save lives. Mr Guterres also expressed "dismay at the rising global phenomenon of migrants and people fleeing conflict or persecution and perishing at sea". At this time of year, when the Mediterranean tends to be calmer, vessels carrying migrants from Africa and the Middle East land on Italy's southern shores almost every day, the BBC's Alan Johnston reports from Rome. Media captionLampedusa mayor Giusi Nicolini: "These bodies are all speaking. We need to stop this" But often the vessels are overcrowded and are not seaworthy. The UN said that in recent months most migrants attempting the crossing were fleeing the conflicts in Syria and the Horn of Africa, rather than coming from sub-Saharan Africa.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees said that more than 1,500 people drowned or went missing while attempting to cross the Mediterranean to reach Europe in 2011, making it the "most deadly stretch of water for refugees and migrants". The UN also said that almost 500 people were reported dead or missing at sea during 2012 in attempts to reach Europe. The number of those arriving by sea to Italy this year until 30 September stood at 30,100, according to the UN. Media caption"A disgrace": Pope on boat tragedy The main nationalities of those arriving were Syrian (7,500), Eritrean (7,500) and Somali (3,000). On Wednesday a draft report from human rights body the Council of Europe said that Italy was "ill-prepared for a new surge of mixed migration on its coasts". Italy's system for receiving and processing migrants and asylum seekers was not fit for purpose, a council committee on immigration said.

Question: What is the name of the Italian island close to the North African coast that was first to have an influx of refugees?
Answer: LAMPEDUSA